The Great and Worthy Teacher Whispered Through the Yellow Turban
The Great and Worthy Teacher Whispered Through the Yellow Turban
Countless people gathered before the ruined government office.
All around, the corpses of officials in their robes and the soldiers who had guarded them lay strewn across the ground.
The scene spoke clearly of a storm of blood having swept through.
At its center, those clutching crude weapons—butcher knives, hoes, sickles—all chanted in unison, repeating the same words like a spell.
"The Azure Heaven Is Dead; the Yellow Heaven Shall Rise. In the Jiazi Year, Great Fortune Will Come to All Under Heaven."
The Azure Heaven is dead. (蒼天已死—For the azure heaven has already died.)
The Yellow Heaven shall rise. (黃天當立—Surely the yellow heaven shall be established.)
In the Jiazi year. (歲在甲子—That time is none other than the Jiazi year.)
Great fortune will come to all under heaven. (天下大吉—All under heaven shall be greatly blessed.)
The emperor's misrule, the tyranny of corrupt officials, and famine and calamity striking at the perfect moment.
To the people seized by despair within a hellish reality, the azure heaven they saw when they lifted their heads had itself become an object of resentment.
Then one teaching appeared before them.
A teaching that a new world would arrive, spread among the masses under the name of the Way of Great Peace, gave hope to those trapped in despair...
Instead of the high, clear azure heaven, it made them harbor expectations for a yellow heaven that would save the lowly and stained—people like themselves.
Thus, the miserable reality and the longing for a new world that would deliver them made the hearts of the people boil like oil poured over firewood.
And at last, as if answering these expectations of the people, one person appeared.
A man of large build with a long beard.
He raised the staff in his hand toward the gathered crowd and shouted with firm resolve.
"Now it begins! From this moment, we, the Yellow Turban Army, shall set this twisted world right!"
"Waaaaaah!!!"
"Long live the Great and Worthy Teacher!"
"Long live the Yellow Turban Army!"
The Great and Worthy Teacher Zhang Jiao.
Originally a man who spread the teachings of the Way of Great Peace and offered medical care to the people, he was at the center of the restless populace. He gathered his followers and launched a massive rebellion.
Zhang Jiao and his followers raided government offices and slaughtered every official and underling who had tormented the people.
Wearing their symbol, soiled yellow headbands, they began to move amid the cheers of the people.
"Now, let us go! For a new world! From now on, we will replace that incompetent emperor and those wicked traitors and look after all the people!"
The year 174 AD, the Jiazi year.
(It's the Jiazi year, not the Jiayin year, that's correct.)
The event that signalled the start of a chaotic age, later called the Yellow Turban Rebellion, thus began in one small village in Ji Province and swiftly spread in every direction across the land.
It was roughly ten years faster than in the other world known as the Original Timeline.
*
"Huff... huff... huff..."
"Ugh..."
Soldiers slumping in place, gasping for breath.
Looking at them, the female general who led them as their Colonel shouted in a voice overflowing with energy.
"What? Tired already? Look at you, panting over this much. You think you can swing a sword once on a battlefield like that?"
With those words, she lightly swung the giant Three-Pointed Blade in her hand.
Unlike themselves, utterly drained, she seemed still bursting with strength, and the soldiers gaped at the sight.
"Oh? Not getting up fast? You lot are already slacking off."
"S-sorry... Colonel Ji Ling..."
"We... can't take any more..."
The soldiers spoke in voices on the verge of death.
Basic weapons training, mounted drills, even formation practice.
After nearly half a year since they first enlisted, most of the training should have become familiar. Yet they still could not adapt at all to her monstrous stamina, which they could only deem inhuman.
Even during harsh training that had lasted for several shichen, she only broke a little sweat and never once gasped for air.
Thinking that historical figures like Xiang Ji or Fan Kuai must have felt like this, they glanced at each other for a moment.
Honestly, they could still move if ordered to.
The half-year of hellish training hadn't been for nothing, after all.
But they knew full well that getting up right now by mustering their strength for no reason carried a very high probability of leading to a situation where they truly passed out.
It wasn't just a guess; they'd once carelessly pushed themselves and experienced something that felt like their souls would separate from their bodies.
That was when the soldiers were stiff with fear, caught in that impossible dilemma.
"That's enough, Ji Ling."
"!"
A familiar and welcome voice that recalled a single ray of light.
That voice, which felt like a father stopping a scolding mother with her rod, drew the soldiers' gazes instantly in that direction.
There stood the General Who Guards the North, the commander leading the army stationed here.
At the appearance of their tall, handsome direct superior, the female general who had been talking so vigorously just moments before spoke with a slightly subdued voice.
"But, my lord... Anyone can see these guys can still keep going. They could run at least ten more laps around the training ground."
"I said it's fine, so end it here for today. I told you before that excessive training does more harm than good."
"Hmm... but still..."
The female general glanced this way and that, unable to decide.
At first glance, she might have looked a little cute, but for those who knew that the scales of paradise and the yellow underworld were swinging back and forth inside that hesitation, they could only watch her face with nothing but anxiety.
That was when.
-Pat!
"!..."
The General Who Guards the North placed his hand on her shoulder, with a slightly firm touch.
For an instant, she froze as if turned to stone, just staring up at the General's face.
"It's an order, Colonel Ji Ling. Today is rest. Now, everyone disperse."
"Sigh... Well, if my lord commands it... It can't be helped."
In the end, she accepted it.
Sighs of relief automatically escaped the soldiers' lips.
'Phew...'
'S-saved...'
'As expected of the General... He's the only one who can save us.'
A benefactor who had pulled them back from the brink of the yellow underworld multiple times already.
They knew it was not just the training. The extra cut of meat or egg that often appeared with their meals was also thanks to him.
Grateful once more for that heaven-sent grace,
the soldiers watched the General's back as he led the female general away, their eyes filled with loyalty.
*
There's a saying about carrots and sticks.
It's the most basic principle for using people effectively.
This means being strict when necessary to maintain discipline,
and at the same time, treating them well when the time is right to make them feel grateful.
If you only wield the stick, they might appear immediately obedient, but loyalty will decline and morale will drop. You risk being stabbed in the back at a decisive moment.
On the other hand, if you feed them only carrots, there's a risk of lax discipline and normal command becoming difficult.
To properly manage an organization, you must balance these two things well.
If you look at it, even in a household, a mother scolds and a father gently soothes in raising children, which works on a similar principle.
Following this rule, I, as a general leading an army, was doing my best in various ways to maintain that balance.
"Good work today, running the soldiers ragged."
"This is hardly hard work. As long as things go the way my lord wants, that's good enough. Honestly, it's fun too."
Ji Ling chatted away in a lively voice.
She had been appointed Colonel through my authority,
and as previously instructed, she was faithfully performing her role as the stick, training the soldiers harshly.
The very fact that even fairly elite soldiers trembled at a single word from Ji Ling, as they had just moments ago, showed how deeply the fear of her had seeped into the camp.
Meanwhile, by feeding the soldiers well with the solid backing of my clan and occasionally pretending not to notice as I stepped in to stop Ji Ling's hellish training, I was implanting firm loyalty in their hearts.
All of this was the result of diligently studying military strategy books in this world... No, that wasn't it.
Actually, most of it came from experience through my past life in the military.
Thanks to being pushed around by superiors as a Private and then pushing around subordinates as a Sergeant, I instinctively knew... Ah, so this is how you make someone suffer without killing them... So this is how you make loyalty that wasn't there before sprout vigorously.
Treat them like dogs, then save them right before they pass out.
Starve them a bit, then feed them one tasty meal.
It had already been half a year of putting the soldiers through those simple yet effective methods.
I was beginning to feel that the time to move in earnest was slowly drawing near.
"What's the total number of soldiers we've gathered so far?"
"Including the 200 sent from my lord's main family line last month, that makes 1,000 cavalry and the remaining 4,000 infantry."
"5,000..."
After being dismissed from the post of Changshui Colonel over the matter of Jian Shuo's uncle, I was driven out of Luoyang and 'demoted' to the northernmost edge of Sili Province—the border region between Hedong Commandery and Bing Province.
To put it in terms of my country, it was akin to someone stationed in Gangnam being chased out to a place like Paju at the edge of the capital region.
As an aside, this northern part of Hedong Commandery would later be separated from the commandery and given a different name—of all things, it became Pingyang.
Anyway, that was the post I obtained as a result of that demotion.
General Who Guards the North (鎭北將軍).
One of the Four Garrison Generals positioned directly below the rank-2 Four Generals of Conquest.
The main duty was to train and command an army for the suppression of rebel forces in the northern region. For this purpose, it came with the considerable autonomy to establish subordinate units called 'Divisions' and 'Sections' and appoint the officers in charge—'Colonels' and 'Captains.'
Not just me, who knew the future, but already quite a few people were sensing that a chaotic era was approaching.
In this world where you could be betrayed and lose your head even if you stayed still, I needed my own power... specifically military force... to survive.
Of course, I could cling to someone like big sister Yuan Shao or big sister Cao Cao. But considering the personalities of those two—who in the Original Timeline sent so many to the yellow underworld without batting an eye simply for being an annoyance—I couldn't fully trust them either.
If I didn't want to end up with a Honey Water ending like the original Yuan Shu or, like someone, receive an empty lunchbox and be self-deported to the next world, I had to at least possess the power to defend myself.
In that respect,
I utilized this post of General Who Guards the North—which gave me the justification and authority to legally raise an army—drew on my clan's power, and seriously built up a military force. As a result, I succeeded in placing 5,000 soldiers under my command.
Of course, 5,000 is by no means a large number in the world of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, where forces numbering in the tens of thousands would later emerge casually.
More importantly, these were my own soldiers, under my command and no one else's,
and they were not hastily assembled rabble, but troops forged into an elite force through long months of hellish training. That made all the difference.
Leading an excessively conspicuous force could invite wariness from the neighbors, so at the present moment, this number was just right.
At least...
up until now, it had been.
"General! General Yuan Shu! An Imperial Envoy has arrived from Luoyang!"
A soldier came running urgently, shouting.
I hadn't seen the envoy's face yet, but I could roughly guess what news he'd brought.
And my prediction was not wrong.
"General Who Guards the North Yuan Shu, receive the Imperial Decree!"
The Imperial Envoy arrived, escorted by soldiers.
Before me, as I knelt respectfully, he unfurled the gleaming Imperial Edict he had brought.
"General Who Guards the North Yuan Shu, hear this.
"It has been heard that you have, up to now, raised an army by Our command and aided in strengthening national defense.
"Yet of late, ignoring the Imperial Family's grace and exploiting the lean year, bands of wicked bandits inciting the foolish populace are rising up in every region.
"Now We command you: punish those disloyal rabble who are throwing the realm into chaos.
"Cooperate with the governors of the neighboring areas and entirely exterminate those wicked bands of bandits who dare defy Our will.
"Carry out the Emperor's command immediately."
Having finished reciting it once, the Emperor's edict was placed into my hands.
Right after I received it with solemn respect,
I spoke, my voice full of resolve.
"I, Yuan Shu, shall carry out Your Majesty's command. I will sweep away every last one of the wicked bandits."
Stripped of all the fancy rhetoric, the content was an order to slay the bandits rising in various regions.
But I knew that the ones mentioned here were not mere bandit groups.
Though about ten years early, a name I had already heard more than enough.
The Yellow Turbans.
At the name that heralded the start of the full-fledged chaotic era and the beginning of the Three Kingdoms, I started to feel a deep anticipation.
'The timeline is a bit twisted, but... maybe I can finally see the Peach Sisters in person?'
It had already been several years since I came to this world.
My hope of seeing my favorite character had not yet disappeared.